Pottery painting

One of the best things we did this summer was to paint pottery. It is definitely NOT an inexpensive thing to do with two boys who want to pick out giant ceramic dogs that are a foot tall and cost $50 to paint, but it was so FUN!! (And no, we did not purchase the aforementioned dog...we had a ten dollar limit and that pretty much meant ornaments or magnets for us!!) Tanner picked out a cross-shaped Christmas ornament and Evan picked out some small magnets of your favorite shapes. Picking out the paint colors to fill your individual palettes was the most exciting part for you guys. It was almost overwhelming for you to look at all the colorful bottles full of paint arranged according to the color wheel and then try to decide which six you wanted on your palettes. It was a bit time consuming, but once all the colors were picked, we were off to paint our precious treasures. You both loved every minute of it. Evan, your goal was to see how many different colors you could layer on each little magnet and you kept adding paint and water until it was "perfect" in your opinion. You worked hard and were so proud of what you had created.

Tanner, you were so diligent and paid very close attention to every minute detail of your project. You even enlisted my help with the edges which had to be a different, but coordinating, color than the cross itself, and to put a stamp in the middle of the cross. That's when I thought I had lost "at least sorta cool" mom status with you forever. I was in the process of holding your stamp that you had so carefully chosen to go on the middle of your cross when it cracked...right down the middle. We had it setting on an uneven part of the table and when I applied pressure to the stamp, the entire cross cracked. You were mortified. You just stared at me waiting for me to fix it and I could only profusely apologize for breaking your masterpiece that you had spent at least 30 minutes creating. I hurried up to get you a new ornament and you placated me by allowing me to help you get it painted as you had done it before so we could re-stamp it...gently this time. You were such a trooper and took it really well. We left our treasures to be fired and glazed and picked them up the following week. You both LOVED the entire process and were so proud of your creations. I was so proud of you both for staying on task and doing something from start to finish....that's good for a mom to get to see.